South Carolina tries to overcome mediocre history

By JEFFREY COLLINS, Associated Press
| 2:14 p.m.Nov. 9, 2010

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, right, calls for a play during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Arkansas at Williams-Brice Stadium, in Columbia, S.C., Saturday, Nov. 6, 2010. Arkansas won 41-20. (AP Photo/Brett Flashnick)
— AP

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, right, calls for a play during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Arkansas at Williams-Brice Stadium, in Columbia, S.C., Saturday, Nov. 6, 2010. Arkansas won 41-20. (AP Photo/Brett Flashnick)
/ AP

COLUMBIA, S.C. 
The chance to win a title in the Southeastern Conference doesn't often come along for No. 22 South Carolina. The Gamecocks are going to have to overcome a lot of history to pull off a program-changing win.

For only the second time since joining the SEC in 1992, South Carolina (6-3, 4-3) can win the SEC East by beating No. 24 Florida (6-3, 4-3) in The Swamp.

The Gamecocks are 0-12 all time in Gainesville, Fla., losing their conference games there by an average of 23 points, including a 56-6 loss during their last visit in 2008.

But Steve Spurrier will be on South Carolina's sideline. He's won 90 percent of the games he coached at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Of course, all of those wins came while he coached Florida to six SEC titles and a national championship.

"We're going to find out if we can perform on the big stage, and this is the big stage down there, one of the biggest in the nation," Spurrier said.

When he was hired before the 2005 season, he told South Carolina fans there wasn't a reason the Gamecocks couldn't win an SEC title or two. Fans soaked up those words.

Yet South Carolina's football history is mediocre at best. If they lose Saturday, the Gamecocks will fall to .500 all-time. They have a single conference title in more than a century of football, winning the Atlantic Coast Conference back in 1969.

A victory Saturday would give South Carolina a 5-3 record in the SEC. That would only be the fourth time the Gamecocks have finished with a winning record in the league, with two of those occasions happening in Spurrier's six years as coach.

"I have great respect for coach Spurrier and what he's done here and at South Carolina. He's a great coach," Florida quarterback John Brantley said.

South Carolina has played to win the division just once before in 2000, when Lou Holtz took the Gamecocks - who went 0-11 the season before - down to The Swamp. They led Florida 21-3 early in the second quarter after returning two blocked punts for touchdowns.

But Spurrier was across the field, and his Gators stormed back for 28 second quarter points, including an offensive lineman catching a deflected pass and lumbering six yards for a touchdown and a punt return for a score in the dying seconds of the half.

"So that's when you know it may be going your way, it's meant to be," Spurrier said Tuesday, recalling that game. "And it was meant to be for us that night and fortunately we won in Atlanta that year also."

Florida won that game 41-21 in a series the Gators have dominated, going 17-1 over South Carolina in SEC games. The Gamecocks' lone series win was in 2005.

Playing at Florida, the series is even more lopsided, with South Carolina only being within a touchdown only twice. The last time that happened was in 2006, when a blocked 48-yard field goal with eight seconds left ensured a 17-16 win for the Gators, who went on to become national champions.

South Carolina's season appeared to be on the rise a month ago when it beat then-No. 1 Alabama. Since then, the Gamecocks have struggled, losing to Kentucky and Arkansas and struggling with overmatched Tennessee and Vanderbilt.

So Spurrier decided to shake up his practice schedule this week. He brought the entire team together Monday to watch film of last week's 41-20 loss to Arkansas so the offense and defense could see the mistakes the other unit made.

"Did you see them fall down on the ground the way our guys do?" Spurrier asked the reporters who covered the Arkansas game. "No, shoot, they play ball. And their offensive line blocked. Gee, man did they block. I just wanted to show our guys, this is how you play the game if you want to win."

Spurrier also wants to keep this week as stress-free as he can for his team, considering the stakes.

"We're going down there understanding the importance, but also understanding it's a football game, and to play your best, you have to be somewhat relaxed, you can't get all hyper and tensed up and scared and stuff like that," Spurrier said.

The coach refused to talk about how important winning the SEC East could be for one of four programs, along with Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Mississippi, that have never gone to Atlanta to play for a SEC title.

But his players know a win could boost the Gamecocks into the top half of the division and win respect for a program often seen as an afterthought in its own league.

"People will change their minds about us," South Carolina linebacker Rodney Paulk said.